


Affections Touching Across Time

by loveleighe



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Modern AU, Multi, Polyamory, Reincarnation AU, armin has made it his life mission to find his friends, but then they are alive again, everybody is dead, so its okay, this is going to be long folks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 07:56:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5040310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveleighe/pseuds/loveleighe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, Armin had a lot of friends. There was Eren, and Mikasa and then Marco, Jean and Connie. Then everybody died and he was left alone to fight a war they'd won - until the day the monsters came home and Armin blessedly joined his friends in death. Only, nothing ever goes the way its supposed to and instead of ever lasting peace Armin finds himself stuck in the same place he had died, waiting impatiently to reunite everyone again. Only, now there are only remnants of the monsters and everything about the world is different...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Affections Touching Across Time

Armin sits alone atop the wall, wind whipping his hair wildly about his face. He stares straight ahead, unblinking in the glow of the setting sun. Slowly, he inhales, and casts a quick glance to the broken ruins of the wall. There are holes everywhere from the monsters that once were. 

The feeling that dragged him out of bed at such an early time crawls back over him, igniting his nerves and settling heavily at the nape of his neck. He doesn’t shiver – once upon a time, he may have. But the innocent boy he once was is long gone, leaving behind a –

“Commander Arlert?” 

He doesn’t jump. Instead, Armin stands and brushes off his pants, absently lifting his cloak as he turns to address the woman calling his name. 

Bathed in the red glow of morning light, she looks like Sasha. Like what Sasha may have looked like, if – if. His heart clenches and suddenly Armin finds it hard to breathe. His skin crawls, everything burning. Something isn’t right yet he can’t place what it is. The feeling of danger, of not knowing, causes bile to burn in the back of his throat, choking him further.

“Someone from the Garrison sent me up, sir. They’re worried – you’ve been up here for quite a while and its cold. Commander? Are you okay? You look a little pale, sir…” she wraps her green cloak tighter, big eyes full of hesitation and concern. 

He wants to laugh but he still can’t breathe. He wants to tell her that red doesn’t suit her, it never has, and she’s much prettier when she’s cheering than when she’s scared. He wants to tell her that her nose isn’t quite right, and her eyes are just a smidge too big to truly be the same. 

He wants to stop these thoughts.

“Sir… we know it’s the anniversary, but…Do you think maybe… it might be better to get off the wall and go inside. Nothing is coming.” 

He supposes that its true.

Nothing is coming. Or at least, nothing should be. His body burns harder, screaming at him to run and his lungs ache, begging him to inhale. 

“Commander…” the girl starts. 

Only she’s interrupted by a scream that he hasn’t heard in almost eleven years. His body goes cold as he turns again to face the world, squinting against the sun. 

And there it is, on the horizon. Humanity’s greatest fear. Its biggest enemy. 

Its best weapon. 

He thinks of Annie for but a moment, the calm now settling over him nearly laughable. It isn’t Annie because Annie is dead. Everyone is dead – the titans are supposed to be dead. Only, clearly, someone has been lying because he would bet his life that the creature running full tilt to the dismantled walls of a ruined fortress is in fact, a titan.

A titan shifter, to be exact.

He thinks of Krista – Historia – before shaking his head. Turns his gaze sideways once more to the young woman in green trembling beside him. “Go get your Squad, and try not to die.”

There isn’t anywhere left to retreat and there hasn’t been the need to in years. 

Armin prepares himself, halfway down the wall and swords at the ready. Only be knows, deep down that he isn’t going to win this fight. The part that should scare him is that he doesn’t want to. 

He tunes out the calls of his name, his people screaming for their Commander and instead, he looks death in the face. 

The titan shifter stares at him expectantly. He figures sure. Why not. He can give her what she wants, get something in return. Armin lunges, the whir of his 3DMG a familiar and soothing sound to his ears.

***

He doesn’t get to see the sunset on that day. Armin has always wondered what it was like to die but he wonders if now, he will finally be able to see Eren and Mikasa again. Its been a long time and he misses them terribly. He imagines the three of them, together for eternity. Roaming a world in which the titans can’t hurt them. Where hunger and cold and fear do not exist.

He smiles brokenly at the girl who is not Sasha, his eyes glassed over with tears. He wonders if he will see Erwin. If Erwin will tell him he did a good job filling the larger mans equally large shoes. He wonders if he will see Levi, and if he will scoff at the blood soaking Armin’s cloak.

He wonders if Jean is with Marco and if they’ll walk with him to the ocean. If they want to see the desert too. 

He wonders if Annie will apologize for her crimes and if she will come with them too.

Only, when he finally can breathe no more Eren is not there to scream at him, tell him he’s stupid for giving up. Mikasa isn’t there to help him off the ground. He’s greeted instead by blinding white lights and then, suddenly – nothing. And in that moment, Commander Armin Arlert of the New Survey Corps ceases to exist.

 

August 16 2005

“Marco, right?” The little blond asks, smiling encouragingly. His hair is rather long and normally he keeps it down about his shoulders. In the heat of the summer, he has it tied up in a high ponytail atop his head. He’s wearing shorts and a loose tee shirt, feet bare.

Marco blushes hotly, curling a hand around the back of his own neck. “Ah, yeah. You’re… Armin?” the other boy nods, enthusiastically, and scrambles up beside him. For some reason, Marco feels as if they shouldn’t be here, almost like there’s something inherently wrong with exploring this town. Like he’s trespassing… except, there’s also a pull. An urge. Like the stones are full of magnets and someone else implanted one in his heart and its just…

“You okay?” Armin asks quietly. Marco turns to him, hesitating when he sees the understanding in the slim boys eyes. “You look a little pale,” he adds.

“I just… feel weird. Must be the sun.” he replies, tilting his head back to search for the top of the wall. 

“They say years ago, there used to be three round walls that totally locked humanity in to keep us safe. And that there were smaller walls around the towns that acted kind of like decoys.” Armin starts. “One day a giant, bigger than the wall could ever be, appeared in a puff of smoke like magic. And the giant began to kick the wall apart. For years the giants ruined the walls until nothing was left but ruins.”

“It’s… an interesting story. But it doesn’t make much sense. If the giants destroyed everything, then how come we’re here right now?” Marco asks, lips pulling to the side in distaste. 

Armin shrugs. “I guess that depends on how you look at it. They say the walls were barriers to keep the giants out. But what if they were cages, to keep the humans in?” silence befalls the two young boys until Armin laughs, soft and sweet. “It doesn’t really matter though, does it? We’re here now. Want to climb up with me?”

Marco arches a brow.

“I know I don’t look like much but I’ve been climbing these walls forever. Its not hard, I’ll show you!” he holds a hand out and Marco, despite his reservations, takes it.

They spend the day perched on a broken piece of wall, above a hole that is eerily human in shape. Its only Marco’s second week living in this new town and he hasn’t met Armin outside of the generic ‘greeting the new neighbour’ sense but somehow? He feels as though he has known this strange, blond boy his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short. Starting a new fic is always very hard for me and I find prologues to be tedious but often necessary! Thank you for giving this fic a try :)


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